It’s now cheaper and easier to redeem Qantas points

Qantas will make it easier and cheaper for frequent flier members to redeem economy seats under major changes to the Qantas frequent flier program announced today.

Qantas A380 flying over Sydney Harbour. Picture: Qantas

Qantas will release one million extra economy seats for frequent flier rewards. The fees associated with those seats will be cut by up to 50 per cent. Frequent flier members will also require up to 10 per cent fewer points to score a classic reward economy seat.

Premium seats, however, will cost up to 15 per cent more Qantas points and upgrades up to 9 per cent more. A Melbourne to Los Angeles currently requires 90,000 points and $513 in fees. Under the changes, this flight will now cost 83,800 points plus $393 in fees.

For a premium economy seat on the same flight, Qantas frequent fliers previously paid 144,000 points. That charge will now rise to 162,600, but fees will fall from $793 to $603.

If you want to fly business class, you will now need 216,800 points, up from 192,000. The fees will fall from $943 to $703.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced the changes at the Sydney Cricket Ground this morning. He said the changes represented $25 million in investment.

“The Qantas Frequent Flyer program has always been about rewarding customers for their loyalty. These changes are about making it easier for members to access these rewards and help to keep them highly engaged, which in turn is good news for our business as a whole,” Mr Joyce said.

“We know the majority of our members want to use their points to take a dream trip overseas, so we are adding more Reward seats including First, Business, and Premium Economy to places like London, LA, Tokyo and Singapore, as well as slashing carrier costs.”

The Qantas frequent flier program is one of the biggest in the world with 12.7 million members.

“Amazingly, there are four redemption flights taken every minute, there are 60 upgrades taken every minute and those 12.7 million members have travelled 1 trillion kilometres since the program began,” Mr Joyce said.

The points changes will take effect from today. Further changes are expected in 2020.